Google ready to embrace AI for new messaging tool to take on Slack

The battle arena for messaging apps has become increasingly busy in recent years, with the likes of Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and countless others all vying for attention. In the workplace, Slack is the current favorite thanks in part to its smart capabilities, programmability, and bot. Not waiting to miss out on the action, Facebook recently unveiled Facebook M, a virtual assistant bolt on for Messenger. Looking to compete directly with this, Google is working on a new AI-powered messaging service of its own according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ report is somewhat bereft of concrete detail, but those ever-present ‘people familiar with the matter say that Google is working on a mobile messaging tool that incorporates artificial intelligence and a chatbot. On the face of…